Pop’s poisonous princess: Glorying in drugs, guns and sleaze, Rihanna’s toxic role model for her army of young fans, says LIZ JONES

The first time I met Rihanna, the pop princess was seated next to Vogue editor Anna Wintour wearing a demure dress, with her hair in ringlets, for all the world as though she was Shirley Temple.

She sipped at her flute of champagne throughout dinner and clearly had one thing in mind: appearing on the cover of American Vogue (she got it, too, in November last year) and possibly a high-end fashion advertising campaign of the kind Ms Wintour can facilitate.

The second encounter I had with her was during London Fashion Week last February.

Rihanna in Amsterdam this week with two giant spliff. Her albums should have a government health warning

Rihanna came down the catwalk at the end of the presentation of her first collection for teen label River Island, for which she was reportedly paid £800,000.

She looked pretty. She wasn’t exposing any under-boob. She certainly wasn’t pretending to ram a jewelled microphone into her nether regions, as she has been doing on stage of late.

Her teenage female fans queued around the block that night to catch a glimpse of their idol, who has sold more than 100 million records around the world.

After the beating from boyfriend Chris Brown (left) in February 2009 she had an opportunity to be a poster girl for young women escaping abusive relationships. But here she is again (right) with Brown last Christmas, all seemingly forgiven

Another social network posting, after a live show in November 2012 with the caption ‘It’s a wrap’. Lying topless, smoking, she looks wanton

On a video shoot on a farm in northern Ireland in September 2011, before being ejected by the baffled farmer for being too raunchy

Her collection — while undoubtedly racy enough to raise a few parental eyebrows, with hot pants and crop tops — just about erred on the side of decency.

Yet those same parents will have been horrified by the pictures which emerged this week of the 25-year-old Barbadian-born star. Photographed with two giant, phallic spliffs in her red-lipsticked mouth, Rihanna posted the picture on Twitter for her 30 million followers to enjoy.

Most of these ‘followers’, of course, are young girls. Those same girls, some as young as eight or nine, have been packing out her concerts at Twickenham this month, as part of her sell-out UK tour.

They writhe and pout along to her suggestive lyrics in a disturbing mimicry of adult sexuality.

Walking on money in another ‘selfie’ in April this year: Actually, this is the most honest of all her poses, it’s all about the cash.

Promoting her single, Diamonds, in December 2012 she posts a ‘selfie’, rolling diamond rocks in a cigarette paper. She clearly has money to burn

(Pictures of Rihanna’s dance moves were too explicit to print in a family newspaper.)

Of course, these little girls don’t realise there is anything wrong with what they are doing — they just want to copy the chart-topping star — who this year became the first singer ever to have had ten No.1 singles in the U.S. Billboard Chart. But if only she could be a better role model for young women.

I don’t care if she has the voice of an angel and is self-made, feisty and confident.

All these qualities pale to nothing when we know she went back to her abusive boyfriend, Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty to assaulting her in 2009; that she promotes drug-taking, drinking and the sort of fashion sense on stage that surely invites rape at worst, disrespect at least.

At the Billboard Awards in May 2011 kissing Britney Spears, a young woman ravaged by fame. Never mind the faux lesbian overtones, note the ‘Barbarella’ costumes complete with chains

Is it fair that we berate female stars for being bad, when we don’t admonish men in the same way? Yes, it is fair. Because young women are far more impressionable than young men.

They want to be Rihanna, have her lifestyle, her clothes, her men, her habits.

I wish she’d stop infecting our High Streets with her gun tattoos, her false nails and fake hair, her bogus bad-ass shenanigans that try to portray her as ‘real’, as ‘street’, as her own person, as strong and single-minded.

While Rihanna knows when to tone it down in order to pull in advertising deals and keep her record label sweet — so much so that she has enough dollar bills to use them as a carpet, and so many diamonds she can pretend to smoke them in a spliff, both things she’s been pictured doing — the message she’s sending to her young fans, through her explicit lyrics, vile dance moves and pictures on Twitter, is utterly toxic.

This poisonous pop princess should come with a government health warning.

Even a celebration cake in April this year isn’t wholesome. It’s in the shape of a marijuana leaf, with an iced, spaced-out smiley face.